I have been exposed to, and in turn managed others, in triumph and tragedy, opportunity and challenge. Not all playing fields are level. And some add more than others to one’s ability.

The breadth of knowledge and range of skills that needed assembling to achieve our goals, that was required to succeed as winners – was remarked on by many.

The most important skills were not of a technical nature – those were a given. It was a combination of EQ / IQ, a can do attitude, a passion for and drawing the best out of people, delight in putting nay-sayers in their place, being appealingly different, understanding what it means to be no.1, and in the face of it all, being humble, putting others first.

An opportunity arose to move to London from South Africa, initiated by Amanda my wife, and her ever strengthening career with The Walt Disney Company.

I had never previously looked for employment. I was ‘connectionless’. If I could connect, build a good enough network, I would learn and find the right opportunities.

I expected that employment for me would likely NOT be found on the ubiquitous job boards and the sending of a CV into their cyber spaces.

Apart from the lack of a network, 2 other significant challenges faced me: – in my experience both excuses for not being able to judge talent and ability: – my track record of accomplishments and our hiring of ‘non box-ticked’ senior management into critical positions bears testimony to this poor practise.

My skill-set has been honed in an industry, the model of which did not exist in the UK and I therefore do not tick ordinary recruiters boxes.

A LinkedIn profile alone is limiting when it’s necessary to differentiate oneself. (There are +950 ‘Just like you’ as in me, according to LinkedIn)

I know, however, that my skills are eminently transferable and I relish the opportunity of repaying an employer’s boldness and trust. A respected New York adman once told me that businesses need to be kept “Safe from Safe”.

This is not the view taken by many recruiters as they are not close enough to their client’s business needs to know when and how to introduce talent that doesn’t tick the ‘right’ boxes.